


Moving in Glory (among the stars)

by callanway



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Gen, MAMA Era Powers (EXO), Music Video: MAMA (EXO), Superpowers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-16
Updated: 2019-09-19
Packaged: 2020-09-02 00:41:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20267197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callanway/pseuds/callanway
Summary: Kim Jinsol moves to a small island town where she gets involved in the mystery surrounding a group of boys at school.A supernatural encounter leaves her suspicious of their disappearances and strange behavior and she has to know if they're connected to the creature that attacked her.As Jin gets closer to the truth, she learns that she's not so normal herself and that the attack on her wasn't random after all...





	1. Jinsol

“It seemed to travel with her, to sweep her aloft in the power of song, so that she was moving in glory among the stars, and for a moment she, too, felt that the words Darkness and Light had no meaning, and only this melody was real.” 

― **Madeleine L'Engle, ** **A Wrinkle in Time**

* * *

  


In retrospect, it probably wasn’t a good idea to run off into the night after a fleeing cat.

But she was the eldest of our bunch and I wasn’t willing to let her run off into a dark night when it was about to storm and when there was a road nearby.

There was a reason the stray cats on our street only lasted so long.

To the back of me, I could hear my dad calling after me, lingering in the doorway with my little brother clinging to his leg.

Dad was torn on what to do - go after his daughter on a crazy run through the woods after a slippery cat; or stay with the sickly six year old in the warmth of the house so the kid wouldn’t get any worse.

“I’ll be right back!” I called to him over my shoulder. I didn’t look back.

Taehyung’s puppy dog eyes and his pitiful red nose would have been enough to make me hesitate and lose sight of Peppermint the Cat.

It would be fine. After all, unlike the sickly child back in the house, I only had two more years before I hit adulthood.

I could handle myself and once Peppermint got distracted, it would be easy to spot her.

She was a snowy white ball of fluff and, despite the storm I could feel brewing in the distance, the moon had yet to disappear behind the clouds and was still illuminating the woods around me.

Peppermint practically glowed in that white light.

Surely I could catch her and bring her back to the warm safety of home.

At least, that’s what I thought until a cloud finally passed over the moon, sending the world into darkness and making it hard to see.

I’m not really sure what happened then, apart from a brief moment of panic and then a tremendous pain.

* * *

I might have run into a tree.

* * *

I woke to darkness and the familiar feeling of a purring cat perched on my hip.

Peppermint blinked languidly at me, her tiny body feeling like a ton of bricks concentrated on the curve of my hip.

I groaned at the sight of her and rolled over. Peppermint was promptly scooped up into my arms before she could run off again.

She _ mrrped _in displeasure, but remained still. She’d had her adventure and was done for the night.

I shook the leaves out of my hair and grimaced at the feeling of grit against my face and neck. A few rocks were stuck to my arms. It was summer still and during my bout of unconsciousness, I’d been snoozing in a pile of dirt and dry twigs. The idea of bugs crawling all over me made my body itch and I set off into the night once more.

I needed a long bath and a face mask, pronto.

Thankfully, Peppermint hadn’t led my far from the house and the storm had yet to arrive.

There was a sliver of moonlight peeking out from the sudden cloud cover. There was a rumble of thunder in the background. I could just see the lights from the house from between the trees.

I huffed down at Peppermint as I hurried forward, ready to be inside again. I wasn’t much for the outdoors.

It smelled weird.

Peppermint started to squirm in my arms, twisting to latch onto my shoulder with her front paws. Years of carrying her and all the other cats that lived with our family worked in my favor and I barely winced as her claws went through the thin fabric of my T-shirt and scraped against my skin.

I tightened my grip around her a bit.

“No, ma’am.” I said firmly. “You’re too prissy to stay out here. The ecosystem couldn’t handle you. And don’t think you’ll be getting any treats from me anytime soon!”

Normally, this wouldn’t even phase Peppermint. It wasn’t a phrase she would recognize like her name or me asking if she was hungry. Something else caught her attention from over my shoulder and her little body started heaving with the force of her breathe. A little chuffing noise came from her.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I fought against the urge to turn around and see what she was looking at.

Her chuffs turned into a throaty growl.

My hurried walk quickened into a run.

I didn’t want to know what it was. I just wanted out of there.

I could live without knowing what was in the woods.

Peppermint and I broke through the trees just as she let out an angry and defensive yowl, letting go of my shoulder long enough to swipe at something behind us.

With my arms full of cat, I could only crash against the door with a bang, accidentally pulling out a bit of Peppermint’s fur in my panic. I finally turned around to see what I was convinced was a giant beast chasing me and my cat.

The backyard was empty save for a couple of lawn chairs and Taehyung’s play-set.

Panting, I slumped against the door in relief.

“Dummy.” I scolded the white ball of fluff as she turned around to keep glaring into the woods. “You overreacted.”

_ We both did _, I thought in exasperation. It had to be the coming storm and the electricity in the air getting to me. The thunder rolled again.

The backdoor opened behind me and I fell back inside with a startled scream.

My dad caught me. He looked angry and suddenly I wasn’t so relieved to be home. I was in _ trouble _.

“It’s been half an hour!” he exclaimed, slamming the door shut. Peppermint jumped from my arms and hurried to look out the window by the door. Dad scowled at me. “Kim Jinsol, what were you thinking? You worried me sick! I - what happened to your head?”

In less than a second, my dad went from angry father to concerned dad, one I was familiar with from childhood scrapes and bruises. Lately, Taehyung had been the sole target for that look. Usually after the six year old had thrown up.

I flinched as he touched my forehead. Suddenly, my head was pounding and I was feeling the burn and exhaustion of my run through the woods.

“I hit my head on something.” I said wearily, leaning against the hall tree next to the door. I landed against it more heavily than I intended and rattled it. Taehyung’s little purple galosh fell out of its cubby and bumped my foot.

Alarm crossed over Dad’s face and he made me sit down on its bench, leaning me back against our coats that hung there. The jacket he wore to work smelled of hospital soap.

A sudden intensity focused his expression, reminding me he was still a doctor, despite the leave of absence he’d taken recently on account of Taehyung.

“I’m going to get my bag. Stay awake.” he commanded. “You’ve got a bad bump.”

I gave him a thumbs up and a deadpan expression.

He rolled his eyes as he left the mudroom.

From her place in the window, Peppermint was growling again.

I turned my head towards her, less wary this time and noticed that she’d been joined by another of our cats, the chunkiest of our boys, Hunk.

Taehyung liked Voltron and Hunk was his favorite character,

I liked Shiro and Lance best.

Unlike Peppermint, Hunk didn’t puff up with aggression, but the fur on his face was laid flat and his yellow eyes were wide with fear.

I frowned and got up to see what they were looking at.

A small, congested voice piped up from beneath my elbow.

I jumped a bit, looking at Taehyung with wide eyes.

“Sorry, baby.” I murmured, leaning down to hug him. “I didn’t hear you.”

“They’re scared.” he sniffled, wrapping his arms around my neck. His skin was clammy from his cold. “Lock the door, please? The storm wants in.”

Another roll of thunder punctuated his point.

I smiled into his hair indulgently. “Sure thing, bug. How do you think we can help them calm down?”

Taehyung pointed at the light switch for the porch as I moved to turn the deadbolt.

“Ah. Good idea.” I nodded solemnly, wincing at the throb in my head. I flicked the light on and felt a bit better for it. The surety of this child was enough to put me at ease.

Little kids were experts in the rituals and warding magic that kept away the boogeyman and the creepy things in the night.

I sat back down on the hall tree’s bench and cuddled Taehyung to me. Together we listened to Peppermint’s quieting growls until she was done.

She huffed and stretched herself out on the floor beneath the window to keep guard. Hunk sat heavily and leaned over to sniff her face. Peppermint licked his face and he reared back like she’d hit him. Hunk waddled off.

Dad nearly tripped over him as he returned to fuss over his children.

* * *

  
  


Outside, the light bulb buzzed quietly, warding off the darkness and the unknown as the storm steadily approached. The occupants of the house jumped as an angry blast of thunder shook the glass in the windows, but couldn’t touch the light and the warmth inside.

From the darkness of the woods, something waited impatiently, having been so close but still too slow.

It needed a little more time, a little more strength, before it was ready.

Then no one would be able to run from it.


	2. Jinsol

I should have been grateful to be moving to a new town before the start of the school year instead of during it.

Starting school again with everyone else would make it better somehow.

It didn’t.

As we boarded the ferry that would take us across the water to our new home, I stayed silent, my hands full with the cat carriers traveling with us. Peppermint resided in one and Hunk and Squirt, the fat cat’s brother, in the other. Normally, all of the cats would have their own space, but Dad now had another kid to worry about and the trip wouldn’t last much longer. We’d be at our new house soon enough.

So I stayed quiet and handled Peppermint’s protests while Dad chased Taehyung around the boat.

The kid was having the time of his life, even though it was now late and well past his bedtime. The smell of saltwater and boat exhaust was exciting and not nauseating to him like it was for me.

The whole moving thing in general was fun for him.

I was dreading it.

It wasn’t the idea of moving to a beach town, but an island. It wasn’t worrying about new classes or teachers, but the students. It wasn’t the new place, but the prospect of being the  _ new kid _ .

The new kid at a school on an island where everyone had grown up knowing one another and had established cliques from childhood.

It could be great or a disaster.

I was feeling pessimistic.

It was going to be a disaster.

“Exode!” the man who’d collected our fares hollered. I grimaced and moved to join my family. “The next stop for this ferry will be Exode!”

“What kind of a name is Exode?” I grumbled as I came up behind Dad.

He gave me a distracted smile as he hefted Taehyung into his arms. The kid grinned at me.

“It’s French.” Dad explained as he grabbed Taehyung’s backpack off the floor. “The settlers who founded the town there were descendents of trappers from further north.”

I smirked cheekily. “Someone’s been doing their research.”

“Considering we’re about to live here.” Dad shot back, his tone matching mine. “It wouldn’t hurt you to pick up a local brochure and read a little.”

“And look even more like a tourist?” I snorted at the idea.

Taehyung tapped my head impatiently, tired of being ignored. “Jinnie! Did you see the waves? Like on the lake!”

A grin finally crossed my face. Taetae was the cutest. “Waves on the lake are nothing compared to this, bug. Let’s learn how to surf - then we’ll see some waves.”

Dad snorted. “Good luck with that. This is the East Coast, kids. And it’s fall. Waves here are less like waves and more like… splashes.”

Taehyung and I let out identical groans of disappointment and booed Dad as we followed him off the boat.

* * *

“Y’know, for a French-founded island, this place looks an awful lot like a trip to Grandma’s.” I snorted as I sat the cat carriers down inside our new foyer. I’d seen more Asian people out during our ride through town than I did anyone else.

A look over the high ceilings and the sparkling light fixture made me more appreciative of our new home. Against the far wall, past the plush rug and between a pair of large, door-less frames that hinted at other grand rooms, was a wide staircase made of dark, shining wood. A lush green runner came down the stairs like a great snake covered in jungle vines. It matched the rug in the entryway.

“Huh?” Taehyung’s face scrunched up with confusion at my remark, but quickly opened again with amazement as he too spotted the light fixture. “Oooh.”

Dad snorted. “At least no one here will question you two being siblings if you keep acting like that.”

I shared a grin with Taehyung and Dad looked pleased with the concept.

Taehyung and I weren’t biological siblings, a fact that the kid had struggled with once some of the crueler kids in his class found out. Taetae wasn’t bothered by much, and once bullies finally found something to pick at, they did so with gusto.

Little brats.

It wasn’t as if he didn’t look like us either. He looked so much like Dad and I that no one would question it. Dad and I leaned to a more delicate make in features and had the same signature pout, but Taehyung had the prettiest baby-face and an abundance of moles, including one of his left cheek - just like his new father and sister.

It was easy to see how much he loved us, too. And how much we loved him.

Our family started off in a very nontraditional way. Or the tried and true traditional way if you looked at it differently. And by that, I mean the one where a guy has a few flings and gets a girl pregnant without being the wiser, leaving her to carry the kid and go through the birth alone. That wasn’t anything new. I didn’t end up in Dad’s custody until I was nearly a year old, my mother’s fate unknown and me left in a church with just a note pinned to the baby carrier. One DNA test later and suddenly there was a pre-med student with a baby. And being an adoptee himself, there was no way Dad was going to let me go. So one of my aunts moved to the U.S. to stay with us so Dad didn’t have to give up on all his hard work and dream of being a doctor.

Then, three years ago, Dad somehow gained custody of a little boy named Taehyung. The details are fuzzy to me, but there was a medical issue and then an attachment issue. Meaning Dad got attached to the toddler and so did I - once I got over my new teenage angst.

It had been weird at first to suddenly have a kid brother. My world was suddenly expanded and I wasn’t so sure I liked it at first. I didn’t want things to be easy. Dad got to hand pick a kid after getting stuck with me. I felt like maybe there was something wrong with me and that I was getting replaced by some newer model. Like a dog or a car.

But Taehyung had something magical about him in the way only little kids could. He was a right terror sometimes, but he was also full of wonder and joy and curiosity and unconditional love. Being in his presence was like the earth to the sun. Warm and gravitational. An unbreakable pull.

Now, being called Taehyung’s sister made my heart swell.

Literally, my chest felt fit to burst.

I swept Taehyung out of Dad’s arms and smushed his face against mine, peppering him with kisses and blowing playful raspberries against his cheek to make him shriek with laughter. I dipped him upside down and pretended that I would drop him.

Dad chuckled fondly as he shut the front door and took Taehyung back before the kid’s face could get too red. He nodded at the cat carriers.

“Better let them out before they go stir-crazy. Or Squirt eats Hunk. The lady from the Board had the movers leave everything except the big bits in the hallway upstairs - we’ll just have to sort through it all when you decide on your rooms.”

The hospital that Dad was moving to had arranged the move for us. The house came furnished, all shiny wood surfaces with clawed feet on the chairs and tables like they were ready to walk off at a moment’s notice. Coupled with the high ceilings, polished wood floors and picturesque windows, it was very much a stereotypical doctor’s house - very different from the little house in the woods we’d come from. This one still backed into the woods, but was fenced in with tall, white painted slats with trellises of vines creeping over them.

It seemed very East Coast privilege to me.

Taehyung and I peered at each other suspiciously.

“I’ll make it upstairs before you.” I declared heading for the staircase.

Taehyung shrieked a protest and launched himself from Dad’s arms like one of our cats would, intent on beating me there.

“Don’t run in the house! And you still didn’t let the cats out!” Dad’s yell followed after us as we pounded up the staircase.

I faltered for a moment at the reminder, but the squeaky sound of the carrier door being opened kept me going. Dad was letting them out and letting us be carried along in the excitement of exploration.

It had to be an old house. New ones were more open. Less private. Harder to cause trouble in. Had less wallpaper.

This one was more closed off and had precisely three bedrooms upstairs and a small staircase to the attic tucked away at the end of the hall. I quickly moved to shut the door to it before Taehyung decided to explore up there before me or Dad could have a look at it.

I took the chance to peer into the master bedroom and was instantly jealous of it. Dad was lucky the lady from the hospital Board already had his things placed in there or it would have been mine.

I didn’t dare look at it’s bathroom. It was sure to be something to fight my dad over.

Taehyung made a noise of delight as he found the room closest to the bottom staircase.

I poked my head in and grinned when I realized why he was in love with it already. It was a sweet little thing with dark paneled wainscoting and baby blue wallpaper on top with soothing swirls patterned in a pale shade of purple. The large window had a pretty border of stained glass in shades of blue, green and purple.

There would be no fighting over this room with him.

If I didn’t like the last room, I was moving into the attic.

Or at least the parlour.

But there was nothing to worry about. This last bedroom - this was  _ perfect _ .

It had a large window overlooking the backyard and a good bit of the woods as well. Beyond that, I could just barely make out the coastline and a sliver of the waves under the moonlight.

Like Taehyung’s new bedroom, this one had wainscoting too, but the wood was painted a rich navy color that complimented the gold and white wallpaper above, the patterns similar to Taehyung’s.

And there was a window bench.

It may sound stupid, but I was  _ crazy  _ for those things.

It was probably all the HGTV I watched.

I think it’d be cool to design houses. Like this one - gorgeous.

I grinned to myself and pulled the sunglasses I had been wearing like a headband off to set them on my dresser. They looked at home there.

I felt at home  _ here _ .

It was a little weird. Before making it onto the island, I’d been so nervous. If there’d been a way to take my family and run the other way back to what I knew and had an easy familiarity with, I’d have taken it just an hour ago.

Now, inspecting my new room and gushing about how pretty and comfortable it was, I found that I didn’t really want to be anywhere else.

It was like coming home after a long trip away.

I settled on my new window bench and looked over the yard, pleasantly surprised to find a tree right outside the window like something out of a teen movie where the main girl sneaks out to a date or a party.

I snorted at the idea.

No boy or party would get me to climb out of my window.

Still, it was pretty and beginning to golden a bit in the cool air. Georgia had been hot and humid. New England was surprisingly cooler to me, even at the start of August. Another comfort, the weather being just right.

At least I wouldn’t be a sweaty mess my first day of school, and I still had a few days left to prepare myself for it.

I moved away from the window to go search for my stuff in the hallway.

Tomorrow, while Dad checked in at the hospital, I’d take Taehyung and we’d explore the island.

_ Maybe we’ll even make some friends _ , I thought hopefully.

  
  
  


What I didn’t realize though, was that the friends I would make wouldn’t be the ones I expected. And these friends would save my life that fall from things we’d never even dreamt of.

They would be the start of my new life here. And the end of my life altogether.


End file.
